Tan Qixiang

On February 25, 1911, Tan Qixiang, a China historical geographer and one of the main founders and pioneers of China's historical geography was born.

character brief introduction

Tan Qixiang, character Ji Long, historian and historical geographer. Born in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province, he was born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province on February 25, 1911. He entered the Department of Sociology of Shanghai University in 1926, transferred to the Department of Chinese of Jinan University in Shanghai in 1927, and transferred to the Department of Foreign Languages the following year. He graduated from the Department of History in 1930. In the same year, he entered the Research Institute of Yenching University in Beiping and studied under Mr. Gu Jiegang. He graduated in 1932 with a master's degree. In the spring of the same year, he served as a librarian of Beiping Library, an adjunct lecturer at Furen University, and later a lecturer at Yenching University and Peking University. In 1935, he served as a tutor at Xuehai Academy in Guangzhou, and returned to Beiping the following year to teach at Yenching and Tsinghua University. In the early 1940, he served as an associate professor and professor at the Department of History and Geography of Zhejiang University in In 1980, he was elected as a member of the Department of Geology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He died of illness in Shanghai on August 28, 1992.

Mr. Tan Qixiang is one of the main founders of Chinese historical geography, the founder of the historical geography discipline of Fudan University, and has served as the chairperson of the history department of Fudan University, the school council member, and the school academic committee member. In 1980, he was elected as a member (academician) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a representative of the third, fourth, and fifth National People's Congress, and a member of the Central Advisory Committee of the Jiusan Society. In 2009, he was named one of the most influential scientists in Shanghai in the past 60 years.

mainly experienced

He was born on February 25, 1911 in Shenyang City, Liaoning Province (his native place is Jiaxing, Zhejiang).

In 1926, he graduated from Xiuzhou Middle School, and from 1926 to 1932, he entered the Department of Sociology of Shanghai University.

In 1927, he was transferred to the Chinese Department of Jinan University in Shanghai; the following year, he was transferred to the Foreign Languages Department and the History Department

In 1930, he graduated from the Department of History of Jinan University in Shanghai. In the same year, he entered the Research Institute of Yenching University in Beiping and studied under Mr. Gu Jiegang.

In 1932, he graduated from the Graduate School of Yanjing University in Peking with a master's degree. In the spring of the same year, he served as a librarian in Peking, a part-time lecturer at Fu Jen Catholic University, and later a lecturer at Yanjing University and Peking University.

In 1932, Tan Qixiang, together with Zhu Shijia, Huang Xianfan, a graduate student at Beijing Normal University, and some history departments at Tsinghua and Peking Universities, initiated the organization of the Chinese Historical Society. In 1934, at Zhongshan Park in Beijing, Mr. Gu, Chen Yuan, Deng Zhicheng, Xiao Yishan and other historians were invited to participate, and together with more than 100 members, the establishment of the conference was announced. In the same year, Tan Qixiang and Gu Jiegang initiated the establishment of the Yugong Society as a director. In the same year, he initiated the establishment of the Chinese Geographical Society and served as a director and deputy director of the Historical Geography Professional Committee.

In 1935, he served as a tutor at Xuehai Academy in Guangzhou, and returned to Peiping the following year to teach at Yanjing and Tsinghua University successively.

At the beginning of 1940, he served as associate professor and professor in the Department of History and Geography of Zhejiang University in Guizhou.

In 1946, he returned to Hangzhou with Zhejiang University and taught concurrently at Jinan University in Shanghai.

In 1954, he served as a professor of the Department of History at Fudan University, and from 1957 to 1982, he served as the director of the Department of History and Geography of China.

In 1980, he was elected as a member of the Department of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (later an academician), the only member of the Department of Liberal Arts.

In 1981, the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council approved him as a doctoral supervisor in historical geography.

From 1981 to 1985, he served as a member of the Discipline Evaluation Group of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council. He has served as the executive director of the Chinese Historical Society, a member of the planning group for the collation and publication of ancient books of the State Council, the vice president of the Shanghai Historical Society, the vice chairperson of the Shanghai Federation of Philosophy and Social Sciences, the consultant of the Chinese Local Historical Association, the consultant of the National Education Commission's primary and secondary school textbook editing and review committee, the deputy director and editor-in-chief of the National Historical Atlas of the People's Republic of China, the director of the compilation committee of the "Historical Dictionary" and the editor-

1982-1986 In 1999, he served as director of the China Institute of Historical Geography. He was elected as a representative to the 3rd-5th National People's Congress.

In 1983, he joined the Communist Party of China.

In 1990, he was re-elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

On August 28, 1992, he died in Shanghai at the age of 82 due to ineffective medical treatment.

Main achievements

The "Atlas of Chinese History" edited by Tan Qixiang began to recompile and redraw Yang Shoujing's "Map of the Past Dynasties" in 1955. The first draft was completed in 1974, and then it was published internally one after another. It was revised in 1980, published in 1982, and published in 1988. This is the most significant achievement of historical geography in our country and his most outstanding contribution.

This unprecedented masterpiece has a total of 8 volumes, 20 map groups, and 304 maps. It includes all administrative units, main residential areas, tribal names, rivers, lakes, mountains, peaks, canals, Great Wall, passes, oceans, islands, etc. that were available before the Qing Dynasty. About 70,000 place names. In addition to the Central Plains dynasties in the past dynasties, it also includes the regimes and activity areas established by various ethnic groups in historical China. The "Atlas" is mainly based on historical documents and draws on published results from related disciplines such as archaeology, geography, and ethnology. It has won the academic world at home and abroad for its complete content, precise examination of textual examination, and accurate drawing. Highly praised by the community, it is recognized as the best in its kind atlas.

During the compilation and drawing of the Atlas, after repeated research, Tan Qixiang determined the scope of China in history, making it fully reflect the fact that all ethnic groups jointly created history and contributed to the formation of today's China and the Chinese nation. It not only shows the dominant position and leading role of the Han nationality, but also affirms the important achievements of ethnic minorities in the expansion and consolidation of the border areas; It reveals the gradual expansion and consolidation of unity, and the gradual deepening of development and stability. In handling historical issues such as ethnic relations, Sino-foreign relations, and territorial boundaries, he has always insisted on respecting historical facts and striving to be conducive to national unity and ethnic unity. The principles established in the Atlas on the relations between historical China, the Central Plains dynasties, border regimes, non-Han regimes, local regimes, and autonomous regions are of guiding significance for the study of China history, ethnic history, history of Sino-foreign relations, and geography of China's historical political regions.

From 1982 to his death, he presided over the compilation of the "National Historical Atlas of the People's Republic of China", which will be a huge atlas of thousands of maps including more than a dozen thematic atlases in history, humanities and nature, which will be published in recent years.

Tan Qixiang inherited and developed the traditional literature research methods, combined with modern scientific theories and research methods, opened up a new way of historical geography research, and solved a series of important theoretical and practical issues. His exploration of historical geography started from the history of geography. In his previous treatises, the research on the history of geography accounted for a large proportion. There were additions to the chronicles of geography in the past dynasties, as well as special research. Among them, "New Examination of Qin County", "Examination of Qin County's Boundaries and Situations", "New Mang Professional Exam", and "Selected Interpretation of the History of Han Shu? Geography" were all regarded as the final conclusion or the theoretical basis of this discipline by the academic community. Published in the 1930s, "The Migration of Nationalities after Yongjia's Mourning" was the first to use toponymic methods to make a quantitative analysis of this major migration; "The Origin of Hunan People" is based on the statistical analysis of genealogy to verify the origin, migration time and process of immigration; all have classic status in the study of immigration history. Papers such as "Barbarian Blood Among Modern Hunan People", "Bozhou Yang Baokao", and "Karma" have corrected long-standing mistakes. He also dedicated himself to the sorting and excavation of ancient geographical heritage, but also insisted on objectively evaluating the achievements of predecessors. "On Ding Wenjiang's So-called Xu Xiake's New Discoveries in Geography" and "On the Regional Scope of the Five Tibetan Mountain Classics" are representative works in this regard.

After the 1950s, Tan Qixiang's research focus shifted to the history of the Yellow River, the history of Shanghai's land formation and development, and the formation and changes of the Yangtze River, Haihe River and other water systems. The article "Why did the Yellow River flow peacefully for a long time after the Eastern Han Dynasty" put forward a completely different conclusion from its predecessors: the migration of ethnic groups mainly based on animal husbandry into the middle reaches and the shrinking of the agricultural reclamation areas caused by the sharp decline in population have objectively reduced the amount of soil erosion and water erosion is the decisive factor in the long-term stable flow of the Yellow River. He also discovered an ancient Yellow River path that had never been known to anyone, thus confirming that the lower reaches of the Yellow River were diverted extremely frequently before the Western Han Dynasty. An academic report by him in 1957 pointed out: In the third century AD, Cao Cao Kaiping Krupu Canal and Baigou and other artificial rivers connected with each other in the Hebei Plain, and the lower reaches were gradually silted up, gradually forming today's Haihe River system. He has published many papers on Shanghai's land-forming process, name and age of the town, most of which have become conclusive conclusions. His research results on the meaning and scope of Yunmeng and Yunmengze in ancient books, the changes of Dongting Lake, and the formation of Poyang Lake have been confirmed by natural scientists using technical means. These results are not only of great significance to historical and physical geographical research and economic construction, but also provide a reliable geographical background for historical research in relevant periods and regions.

Tan Qixiang's main papers before 1982 were compiled into "Changshui Collection" (Volume 1 and 2), which was published by the People's Publishing House in 1987. The subsequent main papers were compiled into "Changshui Collection Sequel", which was published by the People's Publishing House in 1994.

person evaluation

Tan Qixiang has been engaged in the study of historical territory and regional geography for a long time. Since the 1950s, the "Historical Atlas of China"(Volumes 1-8), which he has devoted more than 30 years to the compilation and compilation, is the most detailed atlas of China's historical political regions today. It reflects the results of research on historical geography in China and has great theoretical value and practical significance. It has played an important role in my country's border negotiations and diplomacy, national defense, and socialist economic construction, and has been praised by the central leadership as one of the two most significant achievements in social sciences in New China. The "Natural Geography of China: Historical Physical Geography" edited by him fills the gap in this field; explores and organizes ancient geographical heritage, corrects the mistakes of predecessors, and expounds the scientific value of ancient works.

Tan Qixiang has conducted a lot of research on the territory, administrative regions, ethnic migration and cultural areas of China over the past dynasties, and has incisive insights into the changes of the Yellow River and Yangtze River water systems, lakes and coasts. Important works include "Changshui Collection" and so on. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the country, the State Council awarded him a special allowance, and the China Academy of Sciences awarded him a medal of honor and an honorary certificate of "50 Years of Scientific Work". In 1991, he was listed by the American Biographical Institute as one of the 500 people who have had a major influence on the world in the past 25 years, and his achievements are included in the British "Oxford Who's Who".